


lethe (take a fucking sip, babes)

by Eiso



Category: Let's Play Cyberpunk Red - Polygon (Web Series)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:13:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27397030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiso/pseuds/Eiso
Summary: “They woke up to the hum of machinery and a pounding in their head -- they didn’t remember falling asleep, but maybe they’d just drank too much the night before -- had they been drinking the night before? They didn’t remember how they got here, but they were sure it would come to them in time, along with where here was, and -- who were they, anyways? They didn’t actually remember, which seemed -- odd. Something was wrong.”a.k.a. 5 times Vang0 forgot something +1 time they didn’t
Relationships: Vang0 Bang0/Burger Chainz
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	lethe (take a fucking sip, babes)

**Author's Note:**

> this one has some weird tonal contrast going on, so, sorry about that, but I had fun writing it and that's what really matters  
> tw: memory issues, implied violence, slight dubious consent (one character kisses another while drunk but it doesn’t go any farther than that)  
> specific warning for marley, if you're reading this: this is where the coffee-egg excerpt came from, skip section 2 if you don't want to see that again

1.

They woke up to the hum of machinery and a pounding in their head -- they didn’t remember falling asleep, but maybe they’d just drank too much the night before -- had they been drinking the night before? They didn’t remember how they got here, but they were sure it would come to them in time, along with where _here_ was, and -- who were they, anyways? They didn’t actually remember, which seemed -- odd. Something was wrong. They sat up slowly, looking around at the -- room? corner? -- space they found themself in; they were surrounded on all sides by crates and conveyor belts -- machines whirring and clanking overhead as they sorted through the boxes -- and the only clue as to what they could possibly be doing there was a battered looking agent, low battery warning flashing on the screen. They picked it up, only noticing as they poked at the device that their hand was covered in blood, which -- what? They ran their other hand through their hair in thought, only for it to come away damp as well. Huh. At least that explained the headache. They thought maybe they should be freaking out more, but -- they just felt kind of cold, their movements sluggish and their vision blurry and hm, maybe they were in shock or something, they should probably do something about that, but -- the idea of getting up seemed just completely infeasible right then, head aching and hands itching where their blood was slowly drying on their skin and legs so _fucking_ heavy, so -- they looked down at the agent. 9% battery. _Scan retina for access_.

The agent hardly had any more information than their useless brain. It’s background was of some stupid looking asshole with a bad mustache throwing up a peace sign to the camera, the contacts page was empty, all the texts had been erased, the only apps that didn’t come with the base operating system were _CookieClikker32_ and _SixniteMobile_ , it was all completely useless. It was only when they opened the NetApp to see if they could access the search history for information that they struck gold -- the homepage was logged in to a moderator account on a site called _jumptrash.net_ , which didn’t exactly ring any bells but at this point they’d take any information they could get because their brain wasn’t throwing them any bones -- apparently the account belonged to one _Vang0_Bang0_ which was, an unfortunate name, to say the least. Maybe it was a nickname? With how their day was going so far, it probably wasn’t a nickname.

The-person-who-might-be-Vang0 pushed themself to their feet -- they weren’t getting anything done sitting around here and at least they had a lead now, however tenuous, so they might as well figure out their next steps -- and immediately regretted it. They didn’t know exactly how hard they’d hit their head but apparently hard enough to fuck up their balance, based on the way they tipped over and had to catch themself on the nearest crate -- the second attempt, this time much slower, went a bit better, but any next steps were gonna have to be metaphorical because hopefully-not-Vang0 was not going anywhere fast anytime soon. Their moderator page didn’t have much personal information for them -- the account was three years old, the forum was lively but the automod script seemed to be pretty good at doing the busywork, the built in calendar showed weekly reminders to update the banned words list and intermittent alerts about a channel called _M-house_ but not much else, the personal information page was blank blank _blank_ \-- 

Possibly-Vang0 thought the shock might be wearing off, now. That was unfortunate. They couldn’t afford to panic right now, though, so they forced themself to take a deep breath, smoothed out their jacket -- oh, it was a very nice jacket, holographic and lined with soft fleece, too bad about the bloodstains -- and pulled up the maps app. _Night City_ , near the docks, nearest business was a bar with a 1-star rating. Well, based on the fact that they had -- they quickly checked their pockets -- exactly _no_ cash on them, that was probably the best place probably-Vang0 could hope to patronize in the near future. _Jumptrash_ had enough traffic that they _better_ be getting paid to moderate it, it would only be a matter of time before their next paycheck came in, and they could figure out what to do from there. For now, though, they should probably start with getting a pair of shoes -- the mismatched socks they were sporting right now just weren’t going to cut it. 

Vang0 Bang0 pushed themself off the box they were leaning against and glanced down at the map -- it was time to go.

2.

Burger hadn’t particularly been expecting a delirious twink to wander into his van in the middle of the night and demand to know what he was doing in their apartment, but odder things had happened so he mostly took it in stride -- besides, it was below freezing outside and the guy wasn’t even wearing shoes, it was unbelievable they hadn’t gotten frostbite yet, though that might have been explained by the heat he could feel radiating from them even from a couple feet away -- he didn’t think they really knew where they were, their eyes wouldn’t quite focus on Burger and whenever he tried to replace the dead agent in their hands with some food or a mug of coffee they brandished a knife at him, and sure, he could just knock them over the head and be done with it but he figured he could at least _try_ reasoning with them before going back to the classics. Burger broke out his best calming voice, the one he used to use on the barn cats and one particularly stubborn goose back home, told the guy that it was fine -- he’s not going to hurt them unless they don’t sit down right now, hey now put the knife down that wasn’t a threat, well, it was a threat, but not one that he’s gonna follow through on if they just stay calm, pal, here, do they want a sandwich, or he has some juiceboxes if they’re thirsty -- and they were starting to look more confused than frightened, now, so Burger thought he was doing pretty good on the whole comforting front -- here now, they look pretty terrible, he’s got some ibuprofen if they want it -- and in pretty short order he managed to get them settled in the corner with a blanket and a CapriSun and they looked at him with glazed eyes and mumbled something that sounded like

“Who’re you s’posed t’be, ‘nyways? V’ng0 Bang0” 

And nearly dropped their juice pack when they tried to bring their hands up into a call sign -- hey now, they should drink their juice, hydrate or diedrate ya know -- and blinked up at him said

“I choose diedr’te, please, m’head hurts… Vang0 Ban- Bang0”

And usually Burger would oblige and, well, probably not kill them but at least knock them out, but if their head was already hurting he didn’t really see how him rendering them unconscious would help -- not that it appeared he would get a choice, the guy was slumping down against the door of the van with their eyes slipping shut, and Burger really, really hoped that they were just falling asleep and not dying because getting rid of a body was always super inconvenient; well, he supposed he might as well help -- Vang0 Bang0? that was an unfortunate name, or perhaps just a fun verbal tic -- Vang0 get better because the alternative was that they got worse, and at this point Burger figured that would probably just end up with him tying a chunk of concrete to their corpse and dumping them in the river -- besides, he was in between jobs right now, so it wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

Vang0 stayed mostly incoherent for the next few days, waking up at random intervals for just long enough for Burger to force some broth and black-market meds -- thanks, Hypo -- down their throat, and even though their fever only spiked a couple times into dangerous territory he was still a little worried about how long it was taking to break -- and maybe it wasn’t just about not wanting to have to get right of a body anymore, maybe he couldn’t manage to take care of a guy for four days straight without getting a little attached, so sue him, actually, don’t sue him he didn’t have any money, fight him instead -- so it was a helluva relief when Burger woke up at 3am to a knife at his throat and a bright eyed Vang0 demanding to know what they were doing in his van. 

Burger made sure to disarm them and grab them in a friendly headlock -- there was a look in their eyes that made him pretty sure they weren’t bluffing when they threatened to stab him -- before explaining that he didn’t actually know what they were doing in his van, they’d just barged in with a raging fever and made themself at home and Burger’s a pretty nice guy, so he’d refrained from bashing their head through a window and made sure they recovered safely instead, and he’d really appreciate it if Vang0 would stop elbowing him now, they weren’t gonna get out of his grip, hey, their name _is_ Vang0, right, he thought so, and if they would stop squirming Burger could let them go and they could have a nice, civilized chat like normal people. 

The look in Vang0’s eyes when Burger let them go reminded him so much of his favorite goose back home that it was almost frightening -- they both had the same look of ruffled, murderous indignance that threatened grave bodily harm to anyone who so much as looked at them wrong, but they also were both a few inches shorter and at least twenty pounds lighter than him, and so not much of an actual threat. Vang0 shoved their hair out of their face and glared at him as they bit out

“Where’s my agent? And how long was I out of it? Vang0 Bang0”

And Burger wasn’t actually sure where their agent had gotten to but his van wasn’t that big, he’d probably shoved it in the front seat or something, yeah, there it was, but he hadn’t exactly gotten around to plugging it in, so if they wanted Vang0 could chill here for a few hours to charge it and maybe he could make them some breakfast? Vang0 didn’t look particularly enthused by the concept, especially once they saw what Burger was making for breakfast -- apparently cracking an egg into a fresh mug of coffee is “an abomination,” and “repulsive,” _excuse_ _him_ for trying to provide a nice, balanced meal to start off their day, but alright, he’d drink it himself -- but they stayed anyways, and by the time their agent was fully charged they’d introduced Burger to sixnite and he’d introduced them to the wonders of 1980’s television, and before Vang0 left they’d exchanged agent numbers and Burger had put them in contact with Hypo so they could help him out with his wifi, and overall Burger came out of the experience with one more friend and one less corpse to dispose of, so he’d definitely call this one a win.

3.

Their heart pounded against their chest as they wrenched open the door to the warehouse -- they were so close, they just had to slip their pursuers and they’d be home free, they could call for extraction and finally get out of this shithole of a city, they just had to make sure they weren’t seen -- footsteps crunched on the gravel outside as they slunk through the rows of boxes, one hand over their mouth and the other frantically fumbling to turn on their agent -- they had the data, it was just a matter of uploading it, they’d already downloaded the algorithms to their internal hard drive -- the door creaked open and the crackle of a probably-years-out-of-date com sounded out under the quiet hum of machinery put on hold for the night, they couldn’t make out the words but all the same they knew what was being said -- they were crouched in the furthest corner of the room, watching as the upload bar ticked 89%, 90%, 91%, please please please they were so close -- boots tapped quietly against the concrete, growing louder as the owner drew closer -- 93%, 94%, they held their breath as the boots paused on the other side of the box they’d slumped against -- 96%, 97%, please, just a few more seconds, _please_ \-- a shout, a gun cocking, they desperately threw their agent away from them because they just needed a _few more seconds_ \-- a loud noise and a bright burst of pain from the back of their head --

They gasped awake, hands flying to their head, coming away dripping with -- wait, no, there wasn’t any blood, why wasn’t there -- why would there be -- the concrete beneath them was cold against their back -- no it wasn’t -- there wasn’t any concrete, why did they think there would be concrete -- what -- they had to remember -- it was important -- they had to remember -- they couldn’t forget -- they had to -- they -- what were they trying to remember? -- why were they -- they were just -- what --

A hand settled warm and comforting on Vang0’s shoulder as Burger sat up, rubbing sleepily at his eye, his voice low and sleep-clumsy as he asked if Vang0 was “okay? Didja have another nightmare? I once had a dream that this goose I knew once had grown to the size of a truck and was chasing me around the old farm, and I had to find its feedbag but a horde of tiny pigs had stolen it, and…” Vang0 mentally tuned him out as they took stock of the situation -- they were in Burger’s van, they’d fallen asleep after a stream, they’d just had a bad dream about, something, they couldn’t remember, it probably wasn’t important, they were fine, everything was fine -- it was just a bad dream.

4.

Vang0 woke up to a pounding headache and two faces staring down at them and a complete lack of knowledge as to where they were or why they were there, and sure, at least this time around they could remember their own name but this was uncomfortably (horribly, gut churning panic inducingly) close to waking up in the warehouse and they had _just_ managed to finally -- wait, what had they managed to do? Vang0 couldn’t actually remember -- oh shit, they couldn’t remember, what, what had they just managed to do, what had they been doing, what was the last thing they could remember it was all a blur and couldn’t remember they couldn’t remember they’d _forgotten_ they couldn’t forget again, not again -- Vang0 distantly registered that maybe they should be more worried about the strangers who were still in the room with them but right now they were racking their brain for any scrap of information, 

Okay they knew their name, that was good, Vang0 Bang0, they were the moderator on _jumptrash.net_ and they were good with tech and they were smart and they could figure this out -- okay, they knew their name, Vang0 Bang0, they were in a sterile looking room with a bed and beeping machines and an IV stand, so, clinic -- okay, they knew their name, Vang0 Bang0, they knew where they were, clinic, there were two people who had been looking down at them but were now peering over the bed in what appeared to be concern, the man had heavy augments and a mullet, the woman had telltale signs of poser surgery and wore a bomber jacket, the man was saying their name, so they knew them -- okay, they knew their name, Vang0 Bang0, they knew where they were, clinic, they knew these people… who were these people? Vang0 Bang0 knew these people. They didn’t remember these people. Vang0 should probably remember these people.

“How ya doin, Vang0? That was a pretty nasty bump on the head you took, but Hypo says you’ll be right as rain in a day or so,” the man was approaching Vang0 as he talked, and logically they knew that they knew him and probably shouldn’t be scrambling to their feet and reaching for their shotgun -- where was their shotgun, wait, since when did they have a shotgun, when did they -- they still couldn’t remember who he was and he was getting closer and Vang0 looked over to Dasha for help, she would know what to do -- wait. Wait wait wait wait wait -- 

“Da- Dasha? Burger?” The names felt familiar in their mouth but Vang0 still didn’t know who exactly they were, like waking up from a dream and the details slipping slipping slipping and Vang0 _knew_ them, they knew these people’s names but they couldn’t, quite,

“You alright there Vang0? Burgs, hold up a sec --”

Right. Dasha and Burger. Vang0’s friends. Family. That was it. The other details hadn’t quite filtered in just yet, but Vang0 remembered the important stuff now, could remember Burger’s smile and Dasha’s exasperated groans and the safety they felt fighting back to back with these people and holy shit had they really gone to shoot Burger, what the fuck, good thing they didn’t have their shotgun on them, and wow they really should figure out where that had gotten to, huh, and also where their clothes were _why_ Hypo had apparently put them in a hospital gown they had no idea but it really wasn’t working for them, and oh yeah they knew who Hypo was, that was nice, and whoops Dasha was still looking at them in concern they should probably let her know that 

“I’m okay, just got confused for a sec. Where the hell are my clothes?”

5.

Sometimes Burger really wished he had never learned how to drive -- this particular skill always led to him being sober by the end of the night while his friends were free to get drunk off their asses, and while he didn’t have any particular issues with not drinking, stopping Dasha from trying to hustle people at pool (badly, she was excellent at fleecing people but not so good at convincing them that she wasn’t, in fact, fleecing them) and dragging Vang0 away from the nearest wifi router (last time, they had managed to install a bug that made every device connected to the network automatically subscribe to jumptrash, and while Burger didn’t personally have a problem with it the bar owner had been _pissed_ ) wasn’t really his idea of a good time, especially when he was successful at resolving whatever issue and therefore didn’t even get a bar fight out of it. 

So following this unfortunate pattern of being mostly-sober while his friends were three sheets to the wind, Burger was fully aware that Vang0 was not at all aware of what they were doing as they crawled into his lap and stuck a hand up his shirt, was painfully cognizant that Vang0 almost certainly didn’t recognize him as they purred -- or attempted to purr, it was more of a drunken mumble to be perfectly honest -- a low “heyyyy there, hot - _hic_ \- hot ssstuff, come here oft- often?” into his ear, was mostly just awkwardly trying to move his completely soused best friend off of him as they leaned down, breath smelling of whiskey and some sickly sweet fruit syrup, to press a sloppy kiss to his mouth -- the scratch of their mustache contrasting with the softness of their lips, the vague pressure of their hands against his jaw, a soft sigh escaping them as their tongue darted out against his slack lips and -- _nope_ Burger was _not_ doing this while Vang0 was this out of it, fuck being polite, he stood up and dumped Vang0 onto the floor where they sprawled out onto their elbows, looking up at him indignantly, and sure he felt a little bad about the bruises they’d probably have in the morning but he didn’t feel _that_ bad about it because Vang0 was drunk and Burger was too sober to deal with this shit right now, so

He hauled Vang0 to their feet and wrapped an arm firmly around their shoulders as he marched them towards the exit, snagged the collar of Dasha’s jacket and ignored her kicking at his ankles because “I alm’st had ‘em, Burgs, why d’you gotta be such a fuckin’ buzzkill, the nigh’s ssstill young,” and didn’t bother retorting that it was almost 4am -- because the party’s over folks, he was cutting them off, they’d thank him in the morning -- pointedly didn’t respond to Vang0’s slurred comments about moving the party somewhere more private, buckled them both into the backseat of the van, gave them vodka bottles he’d filled with water, and took a moment, once he was in the front seat, to just put his head in his hands and try to forget the feel of Vang0’s mouth against his because sure, he loved them and in any other moment would be totally down to kiss them, maybe do more than kiss after a conversation or two, but Vang0 was drunk and Burger doubted they’d even remember it in the morning so he might as well put the whole thing out of his mind and make sure to get some ibuprofen for when his friends woke up.

Vang0 passed out pretty much as soon as Burger dumped them into bed, Dasha managed to stay up a bit longer solely because Burger had accidentally started her on a rant about how stupid Vang0’s mustache was, Burger set out water and some painkillers by their bedsides for the morning before collapsing onto the couch to get a few hours rest for himself, and when Vang0 finally woke up at nearly 2pm they merely groaned and swore at him for letting them drink so much the night before so he figured they’d probably forgotten the whole fucking mess anyways.

+1 

Vang0 woke up to a pounding in their head and the clatter of Burger doing something somewhere in the apartment -- they should probably be worried about that, but their head felt like it was full of cotton balls and their mouth tasted like something had died in it and the sunlight filtering in through the filthy window was driving needles into their brain so they figured that was a problem for future-Vang0 -- and a blank spot where their knowledge of happened last night should be. Now, usually this might send them into a panic, but they were familiar with this particular brand of forgetfulness that followed a night spent out on the town -- the hazy blackout relatively nonthreatening when compared with the abrupt cutoff of their life before the warehouse and the heartstopping panic and sieve-quick loss of memories that accompanied their frequent nightmares and the dull confusion and lack of recognition that they sometimes felt when they stared their friends-turned-strangers in the face and didn’t know who the hell they were and -- basically, when compared to what it could have been, waking up with a killer hangover and fuzzy memories of how their night had ended wasn’t really the worst thing in the world, so

Vang0 rolled themself out of bed and downed the pills Burger must have left on the nightstand for them -- truly, he was a god among men -- and trudged into the kitchen to cuss him out for letting them drink so much the night before, shut up about personal responsibility they didn’t know what he was talking about they blamed him entirely, and had successfully dragged themself into the shower to try to wash away some of their hangover before the recollection of what they’d done the night before hit them and they did their level best to drown themself in the lukewarm water because _shit_ , they’d definitely tried to kiss Burger last night -- and it wasn’t like they weren’t into the idea of making out with him, he was a hot himbo who’d put up with Vang0’s bullshit, what wasn’t there to love, but they hadn’t exactly planned on coming on to him while too drunk to even seduce him properly -- and Burger hadn’t said anything about it, and he definitely remembered it because _he_ wasn’t the one who got blackout drunk last night, and Vang0 would go crazy if they had to think about this for one more moment so they shut off the shower and stumbled out of the bathroom with soap in their hair and a towel hastily wrapped around their waist and stammered out “hey, Burger, I kissed you last night?”

And they hadn’t quite meant that to come out as a question but it had so there was nothing they could do about that, and Burger was flushing red and mumbling something about Vang0 being drunk, but he was also darting glances between their lips and their chest and rubbing a hand sheepishly on the back of his neck and Vang0 might not be the best at social interactions but they figured it couldn’t hurt to ask if since “I’m not drunk now, d’you want to give it another go?” and Burger was stammering out something that was something between agreement and complete confusion so Vang0 took a step forward and repeated the question and Burger swallowed and nodded and said that yeah, he’d like that a lot, so 

Vang0 stepped the rest of the way into Burger’s space and pulled him down into a brief kiss -- Burger’s jaw cool under their fingers and his lips soft under their own -- before patting Burger’s cheek, stepping back, and heading back to the bathroom to finish washing the soap out of their hair.


End file.
